This Week in Psychedelics - 12.7.18

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Cannabis

  • Luxembourg next to legalise recreational cannabis use (Just Food)

  • Marijuana's Ten Biggest Victories Of 2018 (Forbes)

  • Vaporized Marijuana Produces A Stronger High Than Smoking It, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

  • Fake Vape Cartridges Are Disrupting the Legal Weed Industry and Duping Black Market Buyers (MERRY JANE)

  • CBD Vape Liquid Contains Dangerous Ingredients (Tonic)

  • How Ancient Viruses Gave Us Marijuana As We Know It Today (Marijuana Moment)

  • Pot of gold: how the beauty industry fell for cannabis (The Guardian)

  • Nearby Marijuana Shops Make Homes And Rentals More Valuable, Studies Show (Marijuana Moment)

  • US Tax Court Rules That Legal Cannabis Dispensaries Are Just Drug Traffickers (Civilized)

  • Two-year-old girl becomes 'first child to be prescribed medical cannabis in UK' (ITV News)

  • Recreational Cannabis is Now Legal in the US State of Michigan (Talking Drugs)

  • Utah Lawmakers Approve Medical Marijuana ‘Compromise’ Bill (Marijuana Moment)

  • Denver officials want to erase low-level marijuana offenses (AP News)

  • Use marijuana tax dollars to fix the subways? No: Dedicate the funds to people who've been hurt by prohibition (New York Daily News)

  • Surgeon General Says Marijuana’s Schedule I Status Hinders Research (Marijuana Moment)

  • Missouri Lawmaker Files Marijuana Legalization Bill After Voters Approve Medical Cannabis (Marijuana Moment)

  • When the pharmacist laughed at my pain, he laughed at all of us (The Times)

  • Feds try to squash Blackfeet medical marijuana legalization (Great Falls Tribune)

  • We ban cannabis but let people eat as much meat as they want. That makes no sense (The Guardian)

  • As Altria Eyes Pot, Philip Morris CEO Ignores Peer Pressure (Bloomberg)

  • Maryland marijuana panel approves ban on cannabis advertising on billboards, radio, TV and other media (The Baltimore Sun)

  • Major Alcohol Association Briefs Congress On Marijuana Legalization (Marijuana Moment)

  • Lawsuit Alleges California Cops Stole Weed and Cash During Traffic Stops (Reason)

  • Instagram Shuts Down a Popular Cannabis Account—Repeatedly (The Stranger)

  • 'Cooking with cannabis' classes are teaching Marylanders how to make their own marijuana edibles (The Baltimore Sun)

  • Lawmakers Reach Compromise Over Controversial Hemp Legalization Felony Provision (Marijuana Moment)

  • Potential Big Tobacco Acquisition Causes Cannabis Company's Stock to Soar (Forbes)

  • Marijuana legalization is working; most American are on board (USA Today)

  • Why Has the Food Industry Become So Obsessed with CBD? (Munchies)

  • Cannabis In The Next Congress: Will Republicans Try To Steal The Spotlight? (Forbes)

  • The Cannabis Industry Is Scaling With The Help Of New Technologies (Forbes)

  • Rhode Island Republican House Leader Embraces Marijuana Legalization (Marijuana Moment)

LSD

  • LSD Changes Something About The Way You Perceive Time (Tonic)

  • Welcome to the trip of your life: the rise of underground LSD guides (The Guardian)

  • Going Out on a High: the Doctor Advocating LSD for the Dying (OZY)

  • The World's First-Ever Acid Trip Actually Kinda Sucked (VICE)

  • I Microdosed LSD To Ease Depression And Gain Creative Clarity (HuffPost)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

  • Study Finds Microdosing with Psilocybin Truffles Enhances Creativity (Psychedelic Times)

  • Oregon May Vote in 2020 to Legalize Psychedelic Mushrooms in Therapy (Fortune)

  • Couple sentenced in fatal stabbing over psychedelic mushrooms (Kitsap Sun)

MDMA/Ecstasy

  • Five US Sites Are Now Enrolling Patients for MDMA Clinical Trials (Futurism)

  • MDMA Boosts Social Bonding, Improves Cooperation (Medscape)

  • MDMA helping with PTSD and Autism (EDMTunes)

  • Ex-Grammar school student, 19, died after taking ecstasy in Spanish club where temperatures soared to 116F and water cost £20-a-pint (Daily Mail)

  • Man died of acute MDMA toxicity on the night of his 46th birthday (Independent.ie)

Ayahuasca/DMT/5-MeO-DMT

  • Indigenous Ayahuasca: What Can We Learn? (The Third Wave)

  • Sexual Assault and Gender Politics in Ayahuasca Traditions: A View from Brazil (Chacruna)

  • Ayahuasca Gave Me a Backstage Pass to the Theatre of Well-being (Kahpi)

  • 'Kentucky Ayahuasca': Chief Shaman of Aya Quest Steve Hupp reveals what drove him to offer therapy with the Schedule 1 drug: 'America needs this!' (Meaww)

  • I Took Ayahuasca at a Countryside Retreat and It Was as Profound as They Say It Is (VICE)

  • Returning to Ayahuasca after three years away — night 4 (Graham Hancock)

Iboga/Ibogaine

  • Psyched up: a visionary therapy or a trip into the unknown (NZ Herald)

Dissociatives

  • Can We Stop Suicides? (The New York Times)

  • Depression: Ketamine prevents loss of pleasure in primates (Medical News Today)

  • Fear mongering nitrous oxide is no laughing matter (AOD MEDIA WATCH)

  • Attorney: DC man took PCP before takeover of Metrobus that turned fatal (WTOP)

  • PCP-Crazed Man Exposes Himself In Woodbridge: Police (Patch)

Opiates/Opioids

  • Dark web dealers voluntarily ban deadly fentanyl (The Guardian)

  • This Drug Is 10 Times Stronger than Fentanyl But Still Safer than Cannabis, Says FDA (Civilized)

  • Opium poppy cultivation up 21% in two years to over 30,000 hectares (Mexico News Daily)

  • Why You May Be Denied Life Insurance For Carrying Naloxone (WBUR)

  • China agrees to make fentanyl a controlled substance after talks with US at G20 summit (CNN)

  • Don't keep naloxone kit in your car this winter, health advocate warns (CBC)

  • Study: Is equipping high schools with naloxone kits cost-effective? (Western Gazette)

  • Is America Ready For Prescription Heroin? (NPR)

  • Why would anyone cut heroin with fentanyl? It's cheap, these researchers say (NBC News)

  • For many teens, the battle with opioid addiction starts with wisdom teeth (Popular Science)

  • Heroin, fentanyl and the need for more opioid prescriptions, not fewer (Chicago Tribune)

  • America Has an Opium War. China Hadn’t Noticed (Bloomberg)

Cocaine

  • George H.W. Bush’s TV Crack Stunt Exemplified the Cruelty of His Drug Policies (Filter)

  • Dennis Quaid reveals that he used to use 2 grams of cocaine every day before getting clean (Fox News)

  • Cocaine hallucinations led to knifepoint kidnapping, woman tells investigators (The News Journal)

Absinthe

  • When absinthe was a clandestine affair (Swissinfo)

Kratom

  • How a Kratom Ban Will Create Health Risks and Suffering—and Fuel Terrorism (Filter)

  • The FDA's Scott Gottlieb Says Kratom Isn't Legal to Market in the US (HubPages)

  • FDA notes high levels of heavy metal in Kratom (AdvanceWeb)

  • The Many Colors of Kratom Explained (Kratom Guides)

Khat

  • The truth about what miraa does to your body (Hivisasa)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

  • We Need to Talk About Benzodiazepines—Including Their Use in Drug Combinations (Filter)

  • The Renaissance in Psychedelic Research (Taylor & Francis Online)

  • Psychedelic Retreats And The Future Of Mental Health: A Review (Forbes)

  • Alcohol-related deaths among UK women at highest rate in 10 years (The Guardian)

  • An Open Apology for Racist Language in the Women and Psychedelics Forum (Chacruna)

  • A Collective Open Apology for Response to Racist Language in the Women and Psychedelics Forum (Chacruna)

  • This Is How Coke, Ecstasy, and Meth Would Be Legally Sold (VICE)

  • Trump’s new top AG pick would be his daughter’s boss at Justice. (The Washington Post)

  • The Burgeoning Psychedelics Movement Still Excludes Women and People of Color (Filter)

  • People are dying, and Cuomo is stalling: We need Overdose Prevention Centers in New York now (New York Daily News)

  • Healing the Empire and Elevating the Underground: A Conversation with Rick Doblin (Psychedelic Times)

  • The Psychedelic Resistance (VICE)

  • Surgeon General: Federal drug classification needs changes (WBS Radio)

  • Fewer young people in treatment for drugs yet more admit to use (The Guardian)

  • Tory MP Ross Thomson mocked after falling for ‘obvious’ fake drug app prank (The Scotsman)

  • Going Underground (VICE)

  • The Forgotten Science of Shamanic Plant Whispering (Kahpi)

  • Pennsylvania Prosecutors Brought 186 Drug-Induced Homicide Charges in 2017 (Filter)

  • The Steady Rise of the Trippy Festival (VICE)

  • Artist Joe Roberts: 'The psychedelic experience is an incredible tool' (The Guardian)

  • Safety Guidelines for Guides, Psychedelic Integration Practitioners, and Other Leaders (Tam Integration)

  • This Veteran Is Beating PTSD with Psychedelics (MERRY JANE)

  • Small doses of psychedelics might help you solve problems (Science Focus)

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychedelics" does not censor or analyze the news links presented here. The purpose of this column is solely to catalogue how psychedelics are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.